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Decca Signs its First Male Soprano Samuel Mariño
The Venezuelan soprano's debut disc "Sopranista" explores repertoire originally composed for castrati
The Venezuelan male soprano Samuel Mariño has signed to Decca Classics and will release his first album for the label on May 27, 2022.
Mariño has always had an unusually high speaking voice. As a teenager, amidst bullying, he saw a voice specialist about the issue. The doctor told Mariño that it was possible to operate on his larynx, thus deepening his voice, but urged him to consider the possibilities of a singing career in light of the unique opportunities his voice could offer him.
Mariño's unusual range has led several musicologists to suggest that he is well-positioned to attempt repertoire from the eighteenth century that was originally written for castrati.
The castrato voice was first introduced in the 16th century when women were banned from church choirs and the stage. It reached its greatest prominence in 17th- and 18th-century opera.
While some modern-day countertenors have attempted to revive this music, Mariño is uniquely poised to bring repertoire that has long lain forgotten to the concert platform and into the recording studio.
Mariño's first album for Decca is entitled Sopranista and explores a range of this repertoire, including famous arias by Mozart and Gluckalongside less well-known works by Joseph Bologne and Domenico Cimarosa. Much of this music has never been sung by a male soprano on recording, and some of it (such as Cherubino's aria from The Marriage of Figaro) explores the fluidity and performance of gender.
"Whether someone feels like a man, a woman, non-binary, I want people to make music, Mariño says. "When I wear a dress and make-up on stage, I do it because I love fashion and it’s a statement. I get messages from transgender people who say thank you so much for being on stage like this. This encourages me to continue to make this art that I love so much."
"As a teenager and despite the bullies and crushing pressure to conform, Samuel found the strength to stand out," said Decca Records co-presidents Laura Monks and Tom Lewis. "As a result, he has traveled the world, charmed the musical world and become a extraordinary inspiring role model for acceptance and understanding. When Samuel sings, he transports you to another world. He is quite literally one-of-a-kind!”
Mariño first studied piano and voice at the National Conservatory in Caracas and had his first operatic experience with the Camerata Barroca in Caracas. There, he worked with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Helmuth Rilling, and Theodore Kuchar, and was inspired to further his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris.
He is currently mentored by sopranoBarbara Bonney and is the recipient of a scholarship by the Rotary Club of Salzburg.
In addition to his operatic and recital performances, in 2019, he founded Ensemble Teseo, which brings forgotten baroque techniques and works to the mainstream operatic and concert stages.
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Opinion Interiors
Look to books for interiors inspiration
I’d like to look at some books for interiors inspiration, having had enough of Pinterest boards. Any recommendations? Amen! Look, the internet is a magical thing. I am forever ending up down rabbit holes online and on Instagram, where I come across images of fabulous rooms, people and places that I previously had no idea about. It’s a joy, actually, getting lost, clicking from profile to profile and discovering.
But I often find that the same images get shared and shared again. Horizons need to be broadened. Nothing can beat the joy of finding inspiration in physical objects such as books.
I love the hunt, tracking down old and obscure tomes that I have either read about or have been recommended to me. The best experience in terms of being open to inspiration must surely involve entering a second-hand bookshop (or browsing a good dealer’s website, although this is never as enjoyable) and seeing what takes one’s fancy.
I love leaving it up to the gods (or, more likely, dealers and shopkeepers) to place the right book in front of me. I’m always adding to my library. Below are three of my current favourites, which I’ve been constantly grabbing from my shelves and flicking through over the past few months. I hope they might inspire you to take a look too, at these in particular, perhaps, but also to begin your own journey of exploration.
Living in Vogue by Judy Brittain and Patrick Kinmonth (1985) is a legendary bible of style. Its blurb reads: “A house with true style perfectly complements its owner’s character and way of life.” This statement rather neatly sums up what I try to hammer home with this column. Forget trends, our homes should reflect our interests and passions — a simple notion, really.
The authors reveal places where style abounds — the homes of “architects, writers, cooks, gossips, painters and potters”. We’re talking the likes of Laura Ashley, Craigie Aitchison, Grace Coddington and David Hockney.
And golly, there is so much to love, from the late, hallowed dealer Christopher Gibbs’ romantic priory in Kent to the swimming pool at Faringdon House in Oxfordshire, its waterline marked by a pair of rare Elizabethan wyverns, to Aitchison’s perfectly plain, bright-pink fireplace in South Kensington. Snap up a copy immediately.
Living Well: The New York Times Book of Home Design and Decoration, edited by Carrie Donovan (1981), is about the myriad ways to — well — live well. It offers advice on living well in the kitchen; with art; in a garden; above a shop; and, of course, with abandon.
Inside, there is a terribly chic Parisian apartment — belonging to Paloma Picasso, its salon a hazy blur of ice-blue silk, white fluffy carpet, pale panelling and chrome — but there is also a camper-van interior comprising crochet cushions, a stained-glass window and even a small “wine cellar”. I love its cross-section of examples from the grand to the humble, all showing how much fun we can have, if we think outside the box.
How They Decorated: Inspiration from Great Women of the Twentieth Century by P Gaye Tapp (2017) gives readers an idea of how 16 tastemakers approached interior decoration. Divided into four sections including “fashionably chic” and “unconventional eye”, the book is illustrated with vintage photography and watercolour renderings, giving it a gloriously romantic feeling.
I’m all about Elsa Schiaparelli’s “shocking glamour” — her apartment on Paris’s Left Bank featured a diamond-quilted sofa (need, immediately) and a screen designed by one of my favourite artists and designers, Christian Bérard.
Turn to magazines, too: I long to find a well-priced collection of Nest: A Quarterly of Interiors, founded and edited by Joseph Holtzman and published between 1997 and 2004. The magazine eschewed conventional luxury, instead showcasing the unusual. Fred A Bernstein wrote in The New York Times that Holtzman “believed that an igloo, a prison cell or a child’s attic room (adorned with Farrah Fawcett posters) could be as compelling as a room by a famous designer”.
This idea is important. While I do find myself poring over and taking inspiration from rooms created by designers (some of which I have mentioned here), I enjoy being reminded that inspiration really can present itself anywhere, so please do not feel the need to limit yourself to books marketed as interior design tomes.
You might find yourself inspired by the description of a room in a novel; you may discover a brilliant colour combination in a book on gardening. My advice? Set aside an hour or so, make a pilgrimage to a good second-hand bookshop (before they all disappear, God forbid), get lost among the shelves and wait for inspiration to strike like lightning bolts.
If you have a question for Luke about design and stylish living, email him at lukeedward.hall@ft.com. Follow him on Instagram @lukeedwardhall
